OV9

TIL they needed "servicing" - I'm still not sure where £1k comes from after watching this:

It was getting close to £20,000 one year for my dad to service his vehicles. Then Covid happened so we starting doing them all ourselves. Collecting Cars also helped convince us to do it ourselves as we’d see all sorts of cars with massive service gaps but buyers seemingly didn’t mind. Although a lot of it was Targa Florio who then listed those cars a month later on their own website with full service history. Wild times!
But I document everything thoroughly and include photos. Use the best oil and parts and know it’s done right.

Matty wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2026 5:16 pmI'm still not sure where £1k comes from after watching this:

I doubt the labour is much under £300/hr these days. They need to clean the hub splines too. Say 45 mins each + £100 of special grease. It's there or thereabouts.

GG. wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2026 5:09 pm Jesus - so I got the quote for the 12 year service. It was as big as I expected for the things that I knew needed doing (£2,500) but there was an additional grand on top for servicing the centre lock wheels. £3,500 on a routine service is nuts.

This isn’t increasing my opinion on the use of centre locks for road cars.

I don’t like the 992.2 GTS centre lock wheels.. glad I don’t have that to worry about on my fictional car!

Well, the Beetle has trundled off to its new home this morning and I was quite sad to see it go

I've sold many cars and the interest this one has generated has been far and away above anything else I have sold. I had twelve interested buyers who contacted me after taking the deposit who "definitely have it if the sale falls through". I like to price cars keenly but I think this one might have been a little cheap

Right, Caterham hunt!

John wrote: Sat Jun 06, 2026 11:27 am Right, Caterham hunt!

Well worth putting a wanted advert up on Facebooks groups (if you haven't already) - I've done it in the past and been offered cars before they've been listed, or stuff where people had offered me cars before trade-in.

I'm very anti-dealer so it's my approach of choice

Sundayjumper wrote: Fri Jun 05, 2026 8:03 pm I doubt the labour is much under £300/hr these days.

It's not

Back in February 2025:

I've just had a quote from Porsche for something and the hourly rate is currently £301.02 inc
VAT - whether this applies to all Porsche centres, I have no idea. Without the VAT, it is £250.85

https://911uk.com/porsche/labour-rates.122237/page-2

I thought the world had gone full stoopid when LandRover stealerships were over £100 an hour.

One hundred.

I bet the tech barely sees £20 of that.

Zoe still out for the count. New used compressor hasn't arrived yet, so it is being pushed into week after next.

Simon wrote: Sat Jun 06, 2026 7:32 pm I bet the tech barely sees £20 of that.

You’re probably being generous ! I’ve no idea how much a junior tech gets paid but a salary of £50k works out to £760/week take home pay, which is exactly £19/hr for a 40h week.

£53,500 gets you up to £20/hr take home.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/tax-calculator/

It’s bad that they’re both underpaid and incentivised to rush, essentially rewarded for a poor job.

Did 10-15ish miles in the Alfa around and about on Friday evening just as a bit of a confidence check.

Then this morning left at 5 and did 150 miles to Goodwood, mainly in the rain.

Drives ‘ok’

Low speed manouvering it’s fine, no worse than before. Cruising along at 70 on the level it’s no noisier than before.

At full chat - my god it’s loud! Obviously helped by being a small old car with minimal sound deadening, but has a proper bark that goes right through you, sounds like a bda equipped mk2 escort, but probably has a whole 90bhp at the most

It’s not so good on transient throttle, cruise along and give it a gentle shove and it has a bit of a stutter and the occasional cough, but a lift and reapply, or give it a bigger prod in the first place and it’s fine.

I’ve read it can be an issue with the genuine webers too so not sure if I can blame the cheap chinesium just yet.

Should really look into the jetting as they certainly weren’t bought as alfasud specific, I just stuck them on and hoped for the best. It might be that they’re just not quite synchronised properly yet.

Jimexpl wrote: Tue May 19, 2026 11:23 am

jamcg wrote: Tue May 19, 2026 7:38 am Seen loads of the fiat 600, and one or two abarths, they’re not a bad looking thing. Did you get the bright yellow or purple?

White, as it was the free option and I'll never own it! It'll be interesting to see if a resonably powerful FWD electric car with an LSD is genuinely fun to drive, but for the most part it will be averaging 8mph in central London.

A lot of the areas I park in now have a £4.26 per hour surcharge for either of my BMWs (up to nearly £15 per hour in parts of Islington!), and the saving will be the same as the monthly cost (including insurance) of the Abarth, so it's basically a free car!

https://www.evo.co.uk/abarth/600e

Reasonably complimentary

Sundayjumper wrote: Sat Jun 06, 2026 8:25 pm

Simon wrote: Sat Jun 06, 2026 7:32 pm I bet the tech barely sees £20 of that.

You’re probably being generous ! I’ve no idea how much a junior tech gets paid but a salary of £50k works out to £760/week take home pay, which is exactly £19/hr for a 40h week.

£53,500 gets you up to £20/hr take home.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/tax-calculator/

So it turns out the £1,000 line item with the wheel maintenance includes the normal major service - so then its actually the £1,200 for drive belts and PDCC / AWD oil that is

So looks like mine being a 4WD with PDCC has increased the cost by 1/3...

GG. wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2026 5:19 pm...£1,200 for drive belts and PDCC / AWD oil...

I'm not sure if that's better or worse

Drive belts aren't normally very difficult, and PDCC oil shouldn't be much different to changing the brake fluid.

I had a problem with the PDCC on my Cayenne. I remember bleeding it, then there's a routine via the diagnostics that rocks the car from side to side to circulate fluid through the actuators. Exactly like triggering the ABS when changing brake fluid.

Not a very good video, but it shows the rocking:

That's a rather less fun version of "if the Porsche's a-rocking...".

DeskJockey wrote: Mon Jun 08, 2026 8:01 pm "if the Porsche's a-rocking..."

"...GG's wallet's taking a f**king..."

Touche!